Former Iowa football player convicted of assault

Former University of Iowa football player Cedric Everson chats with family members after reporting to the Johnson County Courthouse in Iowa City, Iowa, to answer a question posed by the jury during their deliberations Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011. Johnson is accused of sexually assaulting a female athlete while she was passed out in a dorm room. (AP Photo/Benjamin Roberts, Pool)
— AP

Former University of Iowa football player Cedric Everson chats with family members after reporting to the Johnson County Courthouse in Iowa City, Iowa, to answer a question posed by the jury during their deliberations Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2011. Johnson is accused of sexually assaulting a female athlete while she was passed out in a dorm room. (AP Photo/Benjamin Roberts, Pool)
/ AP

Defense attorney Leon Spies, right, talks with former Iowa football player Cedric Everson, center, and members of his family after the conclusion of Everson's sexual abuse trial Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2011, at the Johnson County District Courthouse in Iowa City, Iowa. Earlier in the day Judge Paul Miller ruled that there was insufficient evidence to support a charge of second-degree sexual abuse and that only the lesser included charges of third-degree sexual abuse, assault with intent to commit sexual abuse and assault will be considered by the jury. (AP Photo/Brian Ray, Pool)— AP

Defense attorney Leon Spies, right, talks with former Iowa football player Cedric Everson, center, and members of his family after the conclusion of Everson's sexual abuse trial Tuesday, Jan. 18, 2011, at the Johnson County District Courthouse in Iowa City, Iowa. Earlier in the day Judge Paul Miller ruled that there was insufficient evidence to support a charge of second-degree sexual abuse and that only the lesser included charges of third-degree sexual abuse, assault with intent to commit sexual abuse and assault will be considered by the jury. (AP Photo/Brian Ray, Pool)
/ AP

IOWA CITY, Iowa 
A jury convicted a former University of Iowa football player Thursday of assault, a simple misdemeanor, related to an October 2007 sexual encounter with a female athlete.

Jurors returned their verdict against Cedric Everson at the Johnson County courthouse after 10 hours of deliberations, which started Tuesday. Everson, 21, faces up to 30 days in jail when he is sentenced.

The jury did not find him guilty of the more serious charge of third-degree sexual abuse, which would have carried up to 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors contended during a weeklong trial that Everson assaulted the woman in a vacant dorm room in October 2007 while she was passed out after one of Everson's teammates, Abe Satterfield, assaulted her first.

Satterfield pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge last year but testified last week the sex was consensual. He said Everson tapped him on the shoulder in the middle of the night and he got out of bed, but he didn't know what happened later between the woman and Everson.

Everson did not testify in his own defense. His defense attorney, Leon Spies, argued the woman had been drinking and does not remember having consensual sex with his client.

The woman testified that she ended up in the room with Satterfield after a night of drinking, and he held her down and had intercourse with her even though she told him to stop. She said she woke up the next morning naked and bloody and didn't find out that Everson had assaulted her while she was asleep for several weeks.

Prosecutor Anne Lahey said Everson snuck in the room and traded places with Satterfield and had intercourse with the woman while she slept. In the following days, Everson bragged to his teammates that he and Satterfield had sex with the same woman, while falsely denying involvement to Coach Kirk Ferentz, she said.

Everson had originally been charged with second-degree sexual abuse, which carried a punishment of up to 25 years in prison. Judge Paul Miller threw out that charge on Tuesday, saying prosecutors failed to show that Everson was aided and abetted by Satterfield, an element required under Iowa law.

Everson and Satterfield were suspended from the team days after the assault and later transferred to other schools.